I know this is a pretty common occurance (glad to know others are as clutzy as me). I broke my little toe 2 weeks ago by kicking the computer bench as I walked by. Pinky and the one next to it immediately swelled and turned purple, follow up with podiatrist the next day confirmed by x-ray that there was a break at the base of the pinky toe. He told me to buddy tape it and wear a flat sandal type thing that he gave me. After about a week, they felt better but I continued to baby that foot. I took my dog on a walk yesterday and broke into a jog to see how they feel, they felt fine at the time but by night time the base of my pinky toe was achey and it hurts all the way up my 1st metatarsal, about half way up my foot and there is a slight bruise. Any idea what I have done?
I am determined to heal this properly, the ironic part of this story is that I had a calcaneus stress fracture in May, wore the big black boot for 8 weeks, had just got it off and got the green light per an MRI to go ahead and run, that was the Friday, I didnt even get the chance to run because I broke the toes on the saturday. Needless to say, I am anxious to get to start to run again but am really over having foot issues. At this point I have lost all my run fitness so I am not worried about that, just wondering if anyone had an idea when it would be safe to run again.
TIA 
A friend of mine broke his toe and could run after 3 wks
I hope it heals quickly.
3-4 WEEKS. Just don’t kick something else the week after you untape it like I did this morning. Re-broke it and now I am back to square one with a buddy toe for a few weeks.
Ouch! Sorry Karma!
I didnt even mention in my post that 5 days after breaking it, I was trying to quietly sneak into my son’s room after he was asleep and whacked it on his chair in the dark. Ugh!
I was surprised that after reading about broken toes, 2-4 weeks seeems to be the recovery, yet my friend had a metatarsal stress fracture and was in a boot for 6 weeks!
I’m drinking tons of milk and crossing my fingers nothing else happens to my feet!
Yes, you can NOT run with a calcaneal stress fx. You CAN run with a stable 5th toe fracture when your toe will let you. Will take about 6 weeks to heal, but most can run after about 10-14 days. You will pay a little after (swollen, achy toe), and may prolong healing a little, but at the expense of training for type A’s, it is a good trade 
Best of luck.
Thanks! I am trying to be patient. I was just concerned that it hurts farther up the metatarsal bone (about half way up my foot) as well as where the break is (at the base of the toe). I follow up with the podiatrist in 2 weeks so I’ll continue to baby it until then
I broke mine the same exact way a couple years ago and returned to running after about a week. I think as long as it’s taped and you are not an excessive under-pronator (running on outside rail of foot which would be bad anyway) then you really won’t do more damage to the toe…though it might be sore/achey, etc.
hope you have better luck with your feet and running in the coming months.
Just broke my baby toe on my right foot today. My last race of the season is this Sunday (Muskoka 70.3) at which I am hoping to pick up a slot to the 2012 70.3 Worlds. How stupid of a decision would it be to buddy tape my toe and suffer through the race?
I don’t think it would be stupid (assuming that the fracture is stable and nondisplaced which you should confirm with a doctor). Just take it easy on the toe until the race. If you’ve got a lot of pain and swelling you can load up on an NSAID like Ibuprofen until the race (600 mg 3 times per day). I would stop the NSAID on Friday night if you are doing well to avoid the stress it can place on your kidneys when racing and having a lot of fluid shifts in your body. Try to get it under control before Sunday because it will be painful and swollen after the race!
Also, in terms of actually running on it, find the running shoes you’ve got with the stiffest sole. The less flexing of your forefoot, the better it will feel. You can actually buy a little carbon fiber plate that slips in under the sock liner of the shoe to make it extra stiff if it is hurting really bad. Football players use these a lot, but some people can’t tolerate them for distance running.
Thanks for the advice. The fracture is stable and nondisplaced, and I can walk on it without much discomfort. The good news is that it is broken in the half by the nail, and there is no swelling by the toe/foot joint. I am planning on taping up the toe and run testing it tomorrow. If there is significant pain, I will stop the run and save myself for Sunday. This will be my final race of the season, so I will just have to HTFU. Will definitely go heavy on the NSAIDs for the next few days and then bring along some Tylenol for the race.